Hey designers, app & web developers, et. al.:
There are a growing number of folks in the world experiencing cognitive decline.
When we change our interfaces/layouts/icons/colors/etc., we make it hard/confusing for them to continue using our products.
If you want to go with something “shiny and new” in your product, please make it optional, or on a new screen, so users with cognitive impairments can stick with the interface they already know. #a11y 1/2
Someone I support was very frustrated today because an app they were using daily “changed everything around and now it doesn’t work anymore”. We lose dedicated users when we disrupt their familiar interfaces. New does not mean better—it can mean worse. #a11y 2/2
Yuck. That's usually really hard from a technical standpoint. Keeping old interfaces as an alternative in the long run can be harder than all the rest of a11y. And it grows fast. If you renew your app every 5 years, it means in 20 years you have to keep up 5 UIs instead of one. And UIs are usually 90% of the code.
Very few sites keep the URLs between redesigns, imagine keeping alternative UXs.
I get your point and I agree (most of us will end up needing it, after all). But we will need new best practices, architectures and tools for that to get even a 20% of apps getting it.
